1935 Special Delivery with Farley Imperfs and Railroad Cancels

Rhode Island Stamp Issues and Covers 1901 to 1950
1935 Special Delivery from Providence to Poughkeepsie, NY
with two Farley Imperforate National Parks Issues
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of Cover Full-Size

This is a very interesting cover that appears to have been sent as a normal postal usage, however given the use of the ungummed Farley stamps and all of the RPO cancels on the reverse of the cover; it almost certainly was sent with a philatelic purpose in mind.

The cover was sent from Providence, Rhode Island on September 24, 1935 to Mr. George I. Welch in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was sent Special Delivery with the 3 cent Deep Violet "Mount Rainier and Mirror Lake" (Scott #758) covering the regular postage and the 10 cent gray-black "Great Smoky Mountains" (Scott #765) covering the Special Delivery rate. The Farley imperforate reissue of the National Parks stamps was issued in sheets of 200 in 1934 due to collector protest of the practice of giving full imperforate ungummed sheets to certain politicians and prominent Americans by Postmaster General James A. Farley.

The reverse of the cover is backstamped with two different "Railroad Post Office" (RPO) cancels and a Railroad Agent straight-line cancel as follows: Boston and New York RPO, New York and Chicago RPO, and a Buffalo and Chicago Agent cancel. The reverse also bears a Poughkeepsie receiving circular date Stamp, (CDS). All of the cancellations on the reverse with the exception of the straight-line are hand-stamped duplex Cancels.